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stickly

stickly

8.4
Long and thin like a small branch
  • adjective
  • /ˈstɪkli/
translation icon : delgado
  • She found a stickly plant in the garden.

Examples

  • He wore a stickly tie that looked out of place with his suit.

  • The stickly branches barely supported the weight of the bird.

  • The plant's stickly stems made it difficult to weave into a basket.

  • This stickly tree looks like it needs trimming.

  • The artist used a stickly brush to create delicate lines in her painting.

  • The tree had stickly branches that made it difficult to walk through the forest.

  • His stickly fingers struggled to grasp the tiny object lying on the table.

Synonyms

lanky
vsstickly
19 4.0

A person who is tall and thin with long arms and legs that look a little awkward

is simply about narrow sticklike shape, not height or awkwardness
wispy
vsstickly
7 3.8

Thin and light in form, like a small person or light cloth

is sturdier slenderness rather than fragile or faint appearance
twiggy
vsstickly
1 6.0

Very thin in a way that looks like a small branch

is a general slender shape term, not only very delicate forms
sticklike
vsstickly
1 4.3

Thin and straight like a stick

is the broader slender shape term rather than strictly rigid and straight
stalky
vsstickly
1 6.3

Having a long thin shape like a plant stem

is similar but general, not specifically plant stem like
twiglike
vsstickly
5.3

Thin and small like a little branch

covers general sticklike shapes not only small branch forms
slender-bodied
vsstickly
4.6

Having a long thin body

is similar but emphasizes a plain narrow shape rather than grace
thin-bodied
vsstickly
4.5

An animal or object with a slim, narrow body

focuses on the simple sticklike outline rather than general slimness
slim-bodied
vsstickly
3.5

Having a thin, narrow body shape

is more neutral, indicating narrow shape without style implication
narrow-bodied
vsstickly
5.6

A thing that has a thin shape compared with others of the same type

is about resembling a stick shape rather than just being narrow
hairlike
vsstickly
4.3

Very thin and like a strand of hair

means thin too but implies thicker, more rigid slenderness
boney
vsstickly
  • US
3.4

Thin so you can see or feel the bones

describes narrow shape without implying visible bones or thinness from emaciation

Antonyms

585 1.0

Having a large distance between two sides and often very dense

224 1.0

Wide from one side to the other

How Thin

spindly
11 6.2
stickly
8.4
slender
57 1.4
slim
60 1.0

Surface Forms

stickly positive

Morphology

stickly = stick (transparent) = stick + ly

The meaning 'resembling a stick' is directly inferable from 'stick' combined with an adjectival '-ly' indicating likeness, so the relation is transparent.

Etymology

Stickly comes from stick plus the ending -ly meaning 'like', so it can mean 'like a stick', that is thin, straight, or slender. So stickly can describe things that look or move in a stick-like way.